Okay, I've been rapidly growing as an artist. Less than two years ago I could barely draw a straight line. As an author I always depended on my (now ex) girlfriend to draw my stuff, but when we had a falling out several years ago there was a spot left lacking and I finally took up the pencil for more than words. It was pretty pitiful at first, but for about a year I grew so rapidly I stunned myself and felt myself hit a brick wall. I haven't drawn for about four months until the other day, where I came up with a few pieces I'm particularly proud of, but know are still lacking. I'm gonna' post them here, and if any of the great artists here see something that is a blatant flaw, or needs work, please tell me (politely, of course, but I expect that of this community) so I know how to adjust. Thanks!
Image One: Wraith Beknight, Vigilante (wishes he was batman)
Image Two: "Ash", a mysterious ancient spirit with a bit of "demon mobster" appeal, intended to be a mix of 45~ yrs old and various semitic features
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Image One: Wraith Beknight, Vigilante (wishes he was batman)
Image Two: "Ash", a mysterious ancient spirit with a bit of "demon mobster" appeal, intended to be a mix of 45~ yrs old and various semitic features
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I really like the top picture. Its got a lot of really nice elements. Like, and bare with me for liking weird things, I love the line down his back and into his hip/buttock. Very nice.
On the first one, watch your perspective. The bottom line of his chin should line up with the line between his eyes since they're on the same plane. Your shading is soft and smudgy and doesn't imply much volume--try defining a very clear light source and making your shadows more dramatic and consistent. For example, the left side of his face is in shadow, which implies that light is coming from his right, but the shading on the legs doesn't suggest that.
The face shot on the bottom pic is good, but I don't like the anime hair at all, and his mouth is too straight. The mouth is along the front side of the face, which is sloping away from us, so the mouth line needs to imply that.
I really like both poses; they're really natural and relaxed. For a lot of people these poses would appear stiff. It's really awesome you're trying poses that aren't just "standing, hands hidden, looking at camera."
Are you doing life drawings?
The face shot on the bottom pic is good, but I don't like the anime hair at all, and his mouth is too straight. The mouth is along the front side of the face, which is sloping away from us, so the mouth line needs to imply that.
I really like both poses; they're really natural and relaxed. For a lot of people these poses would appear stiff. It's really awesome you're trying poses that aren't just "standing, hands hidden, looking at camera."
Are you doing life drawings?
Fox: Thanks. It was a mix of trying to show how his suit shows definition to help be imposing, and also certain points I was infering the pleats of the armor. I hate when people have all metal armor but are never willing to infer where potential weak points are. If you're wearing a tin can with no joints, you're not going anywhere. 
Heimdall: Yeah, I was aware my shading was incomplete but I didn't want to say that for just this reason: You gave very clear indicators of where it was wrong, whereas if I was like "Yeah yeah I know the light source is vague" people might not voice what you just did. But at the same time, my idea was that the light source was varied because he sits inside an archway on a building most of the time and has littered city lights around, I just didn't draw that in so I totally understand how ambiguous the lighting is and it still needs work, excuses or not.
Hair is something I struggle with to not seem... "animated" or "cartoonish". When I try to stylize it, characters like Ash become a problem because he's a man with a lion's mane, in essence, and then it looks all anime like that. But that's just something I'll need to learn to work on and find my own touch with. As for his mouth, I'll have to think about that. I was trying to portray how "straight faced" he always is. (Unless he's grinning like a cheshire cat, which is a very perturbing experience to most people who know him, he tends to have an eternal poker face. Boys he knew for years paniced when they first saw him smile.) So... I'll have to figure out how to do the "straight face" without being... er... too straight, I guess? LOL.
As for poses, yeah. That was part of my problem though. Whenever I tried a general standing position it felt... boneless. Not like they don't have a skeleton, but I had no inspiration behind it and it falls flat in every regard. So I decided to try to spice up just about any position I did. What's terrible about it is... well... half the time I end up drawing porn. *clears throat* I start with body study to figure out how muscles move in different positions, and then ... god, one time I drew an entire orgy that started with a body study of Ash.
As for life drawings, not really. Why?
Heimdall: Yeah, I was aware my shading was incomplete but I didn't want to say that for just this reason: You gave very clear indicators of where it was wrong, whereas if I was like "Yeah yeah I know the light source is vague" people might not voice what you just did. But at the same time, my idea was that the light source was varied because he sits inside an archway on a building most of the time and has littered city lights around, I just didn't draw that in so I totally understand how ambiguous the lighting is and it still needs work, excuses or not.
Hair is something I struggle with to not seem... "animated" or "cartoonish". When I try to stylize it, characters like Ash become a problem because he's a man with a lion's mane, in essence, and then it looks all anime like that. But that's just something I'll need to learn to work on and find my own touch with. As for his mouth, I'll have to think about that. I was trying to portray how "straight faced" he always is. (Unless he's grinning like a cheshire cat, which is a very perturbing experience to most people who know him, he tends to have an eternal poker face. Boys he knew for years paniced when they first saw him smile.) So... I'll have to figure out how to do the "straight face" without being... er... too straight, I guess? LOL.
As for poses, yeah. That was part of my problem though. Whenever I tried a general standing position it felt... boneless. Not like they don't have a skeleton, but I had no inspiration behind it and it falls flat in every regard. So I decided to try to spice up just about any position I did. What's terrible about it is... well... half the time I end up drawing porn. *clears throat* I start with body study to figure out how muscles move in different positions, and then ... god, one time I drew an entire orgy that started with a body study of Ash.
As for life drawings, not really. Why?
If you want an idea, Heimdall,
I drew this about... six months ago, a little bit before I took my extended break from art. Like I said in the starting post this is me getting back into it after flustering myself. Pen is an odd medium for me, which is what this one was done in, but you can probably already see just how different my art was half a year ago. But these are the kind of roosts he takes. I just didn't want to potentially mess up the value of the pose before getting it scanned and good critique on it by potentially screwing up the archway around him. Originally I had his horns hook less but I realized that looked way too much like batman with a scarecrow mask.
I drew this about... six months ago, a little bit before I took my extended break from art. Like I said in the starting post this is me getting back into it after flustering myself. Pen is an odd medium for me, which is what this one was done in, but you can probably already see just how different my art was half a year ago. But these are the kind of roosts he takes. I just didn't want to potentially mess up the value of the pose before getting it scanned and good critique on it by potentially screwing up the archway around him. Originally I had his horns hook less but I realized that looked way too much like batman with a scarecrow mask.
Minerva wrote:
As for life drawings, not really. Why?
I'm guessing Heimypoo asked because it's widely regarded as the most reliable method of improving artistic skills, and for nearly everyone eventually proves to be a required exercise. Regardless of whether their chosen end style is realism or cartoons or anything in between.
It breaks the reliance on formulas and allows for a wider repertoire, removes the erroneous assumptions that brains create and hold on to about the shapes of things, and is, in the end, the only way to learn real proportion. If you are studying other people's art, you are always studying an abstraction of the real thing. If you then add your own style that is a further abstraction (It always is, let's be honest) you are getting further and further from accuracy -- and if you haven't been life drawing, you don't even know this is happening, so that abstraction is not style choice, it's just an accident you have no control over. Because you don't even know what you're abstracting.
For people who don't have access to live models, I made this: http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php (Warning: Default settings need to be changed if you don't want to see naked people). But at some point a person just has to take a sketch book out into the wide world and people watch.
I've gotten really really lax about life drawing over the last year, and I'm constantly kicking myself for it.
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